This week’s Time Capsule looks at cattle, cotton, carbon monoxide and a cougar.

100 years ago …

In Friday, Nov. 7, 1913 edition of the Marietta Journal and Courier, the front page reported that locals won several prizes on cattle at the State Fair. Bob Northcutt won seven first places on Dairy Cattle and J.T. Anderson won seven first places on Herefords.

Also that week was a story stating that J.L. Stephens, the cotton census enumerator for Cobb County, reported officially that the cotton ginned in the county as of Oct. 18 was 9,893 bales compared to the 4,588 bales for the same time in 1912. Another cotton record listed was that three bales of cotton were raised by W.H. Collier on one acre of land four miles north of Acworth. On an adjoining farm, W.S. Collier raised five bales on two acres.

Another story that week reported that Polk Street resident W.J. Pearce found a dozen, small, firm, white clear seed peaches growing on three trees in his back yard.

50 years ago …

In the Monday, Nov. 4, 1963 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that two Mableton sandwich catering service owners were found dead in their shop from carbon monoxide poisoning. Cobb deputies said fumes from a circulating heater apparently killed the men. The men were working on plumbing in the building and had set up what appeared to be temporary living quarters at the back of the shop.

Also that day, former Mayor George Kreeger scored a political comeback with a 119-vote victory over Fourth Ward City Councilman Harold Smith in Smyrna’s biennial city election. Kreeger, who had the support of Incumbent Mayor J.B. “Jake” Ables, polled 1,046 votes while Smith drew 927.

The Cobb Advisory Board was reported in the Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1963 paper as having voted to sign a one-year lease with International Business Machines (IBM) for automatic data processing equipment to be used in the transaction of county affairs.

The crash of a single-engine, light plane was reported in the Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1963 paper as having killed a Virginia Beach, Va., man, his wife and their unborn child on Brown Road near Powder Springs. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Agency said the family took off from Fulton County Airport bound for New Orleans in foggy weather with zero visibility.

The Marietta Junior Welfare League was reported in the Thursday, Nov. 7, 1963 paper as having launched a $100,000 fund drive to purchase land and construct a Cobb County Youth Museum. League Publicity Chairman Mrs. Luther Fortson said that members had pledged for than $20,000 and the remaining $80,000 would be sought in public contributions.

20 years ago …

In the Thursday, Nov. 4, 1993 MDJ, it was reported that a Marietta man frustrated with being rejected twice in his attempts to be a police officer, decided to take the law in his own hands. The man, a part-time landscaper, stole a police radar gun, a pair of blue Fulton County Police fatigues and a ticket book from the police car of a Fulton officer who lived in northeast Cobb. The man, clad in a partial uniform, began using the radar gun to stop motorists in Cobb, Cherokee and Fulton counties before being arrested.

A Cobb County woman was reported in the Friday, Nov. 5, 1993 paper as being cited in October for illegally owning a three-month-old cougar – which was classified as an endangered species. The woman, who brought the cougar to Cobb from South Carolina, was believed to have endangered a 15-year-old family friend that was bitten by the animal on Oct. 22.

Forced out by the state Board of Regents, U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich of east Cobb was reported in the Saturday, Nov. 6, 1993 paper as moving his controversial “Renewing American Civilization” course from Kennesaw State College to Reinhardt College, a private institution in Waleska. The House minority whip decided to switch schools after the George Board of Regents said that a full-time public office-holder could not teach in the state university system.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

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